There are rare moments of clarity that come to political leaders when they seriously want to reckon with the truth.

Such a moment came recently to former Opposition Leader and minister of finance and still Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Central Dr Peter Phillips when he declared that the best legacy that the country could bequeath to young people is a low debt environment. In saying this he was mindful of two things. First, that for too long Jamaica has been caught in a vicious debt trap, which has severely cauterised the country’s economic growth. Second, that a debt-ridden country is tantamount to theft being perpetrated against the well-being of future generations. Thus, his legacy statement.

Such aufklarung is not often seen in politicians who do not want to reckon with the truth. Even when they are confronted by the truth, many would want to ignore it, dismiss it with arrogance, or pretend that it does not refer to them. When you think about it, the large majority of the Jamaican population, which comprises young people, has been saddled with the consequences of a stagnant, debt-ridden economy for the better part of their lives.

It is now clear that we are clawing ourselves out of this debt trap. Keith Duncan, the co-chairman of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) recently reported an 8.2 per cent real gross domestic product (GDP) for the 2020/2021 fiscal year. Revenues and grants surpassed their budgeted target, exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels by 10.9 per cent or over $70 billion. Tax revenues also increased by 6.4 per cent or $37 billion more than the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

I restate these statistics not to bore you but to make the obvious salient point that our economy is on the right track and fiscal prudence is being adhered to. If the picture was different and we were heading for the economic precipice, the voices of doom and gloom would have been very strident. With all the bad news with which we are bombarded daily, rampant criminality being at the top, we must, with caution, applaud the direction of growth that is taking place in the economy at a time when we have to be battling the twin evils of the worst pandemic to have hit us in 100 years and the dislocations and apparent inflation caused from Russian President Valdimir Putin’s unwarranted and devilish war with Ukraine.

When you listen to some commentary on what is happening in the country, seldom do you hear of any credit being given to the Government for the ways in which they have managed the economy to keep it on an upward trajectory. We take it for granted that they were elected to manage, so what’s the big deal. The big deal is that they could have followed the advice of some and borrowed to throw money at programmes which would undermine the sustainability of the economy and put us in a greater bind. They would encourage reckless spending under the guise of supporting social safety nets instead of the targeted approach which makes help available to those who really need it.

It is clear that we are not yet out of the woods as the EPOC co-chairman acknowledged, but we are making strides. What has been very uplifting for me, and I am sure for every Jamaican who wants to see the country placed on a sustainable economic path, is the amount of jungle brush that has been cleared so far to push the metaphor a little further. We now see a clearer path ahead. This path must not be allowed to be obscured by partisan one-upmanship. It is my firm belief that young people, more than any other group, must insist that this pattern continues and the country is never again allowed to be sucked into a vortex of debt. They must support prudent politics that has at its core the need to eschew burdensome debt as a way into the future. There is no viable future for a debt-ridden economy.

Young people must become more engaged and embrace political leaders who are mindful of the devastation that this state of affairs has had on Jamaica, and how the country has been set back by the partisan use of borrowed money to cement political parties in power. They must turn their backs on the politics of expedience and mediocrity and the unprogressive politics of one-upmanship that pits one group against another and conducts expensive schemes that are only intended to perpetuate the power of one set of politicians. They must embrace a new paradigm of engagement which places them at the very centre of the change they wish to see happen.

In the partisan, ungrateful environment in which we operate, I would not expect the Opposition to be ebullient about growth in the economy. I am not expecting the ebullience to come from them because that would be almost like the devil saying thanks because he/she/it was handed a Bible.

From the statistics quoted above, one can wager that the Opposition is in a difficult place. There must be some disappointment that the hoped-for frustration of the Jamaican people over the management of the economy has not materialised.

The disturbance and unrest that we see in other parts of the world, especially recently in Sri Lanka, has not happened in Jamaica. Why is this so? Jamaicans are not fools.

I believe people have become more matured in their own independent assessment of what is happening and are less reliant on the interpretation of politicians and their pundits, who they have come to resent anyway. They know that high gas prices and inflation, in general, are related to the pandemic, Putin’s war, and the general dislocation in the supply chain of goods on a global level. Furthermore, I believe people really sense that the Andrew Holness Administration is doing its best to hold things together in very difficult times. They are not prepared to upset the delicate balance that has been achieved. This would be very irritating for any Opposition.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storm, Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life, and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.